


The One Where Jaune Comes Out

by nomadicharmony, ssswampert



Series: Trans JNPR [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 21:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5471396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nomadicharmony/pseuds/nomadicharmony, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssswampert/pseuds/ssswampert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Please don’t tell.”</p><p>Well, this mirrored the situation with his transcript in a way that was too eerie for him to not notice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Jaune Comes Out

**Author's Note:**

> This probably reads like a roleplay. I thought about trying to make it not read like one but I changed my mind. I like it better this way anyways.
> 
> I only tagged "trans male character" because like?? idk anyways--  
> Jaune is trans man  
> Nora is agender  
> Pyrrha is demigirl (probably)  
> Ren is genderfluid

“Wait, wait, wait--Pyrrha, I gotta--wait. Can we… um… I kinda...” Jaune lowered his sword before Pyrrha could charge at him again, letting the tip clank and then drag against the tile of the bit of roof they were standing on. _Man_ , his dad would kill him if he knew Jaune had both pieces of Crocea Mors and was being so careless with them…  “Look, I’m--I’m sorry, I didn’t want to, like, interrupt our training. I swear. I didn’t.” He rubbed at his forehead with the heel of his free hand, using the shield strapped to his forearm to hide his expression. “It’s just. This is the only time where we’re really… alone. And I gotta…” Jaune sighed sharply. “I gotta tell you something, okay? Something important. Something nobody else really… knows.” _It was now or never, Arc._

 

Pyrrha turned to him from the edge of the roof, where she’d been standing as close as she could to the sky without putting herself in danger. Jaune was indeed a man of many words, but this was ridiculous. Something had to be wrong. “What is it?” Pyrrha demanded anxiously, her motherly instincts already coming out full-force. “Did someone do something to you? Are you being bullied?!”

 

“Bullied? Me? Pyrrha--” Jaune dropped his sword and unclasped his shield from his arm to let it clatter to the ground next to it. “No, no, I’m not being bullied.” He let out a bitter snort. “You’d know if I was being bullied. That’s, uh, not really something that’s done quietly around Beacon. It’s not that.” Jaune squeezed his eyes shut, swallowed hard, took a deep breath. “This is more personal than that, Pyrrha. This is something you should probably know, since, y’know, you’re my partner and you’re gonna _be_ my partner for the rest of our time at Beacon. Maybe longer if you decide you like me enough to stick around.”

 

Well, _that_ was self-depreciative enough for one night.

 

“Look.” He had to stop telling Pyrrha to look. She was. Jaune took another deep breath. “Pyrrha. I…” he trailed. His shoulders slumped. “I don’t… really know how to say it. Except that--okay, _Ruby_ doesn’t even know and she’s the first person I met at Beacon.”

 

That was not helping his case.

 

Jaune took a third deep breath. “I’m not a real man. Wait-- _wait_ , no, that came out wrong. I _am_ a real man. Just. Not really in the way you’d expect someone to be a real man. I guess.”

 

Pyrrha stepped forward. She had been clutching Miló till her knuckles were white, as was her habit in times of stress, but this was not a moment for aggression. Almost subconsciously, she let the spear fall gently to the roofing below their feet, and stepped towards her friend and partner slowly and quietly, like she was approaching a feral cat and not a human. _You’re being too cautious, P. Now’s not the time for that…_ She let herself pick up a normal speed, and took one of his hands in hers. Jaune let his hand grip Pyrrha’s tighter than she’d clasped it.

 

“Explain,” she urged. “Please?” Again, she chided herself for how clinical she sounded, but Jaune was a true people person. He would understand the warmth she was failing to convey.

 

“The Arcs are, in addition to being very loyal and very true to their word, known for having daughters.” _Fuck_. “My parents had eight. Remember how I said I had seven sisters at the dance that while back? I was daughter number eight.”

 

He looked up at her from where he’d let his head bow during his explanation. “That’s the key word. _Was_. I’m not daughter number eight, Pyrrha. I’m _not_. Except. My parents don’t know that, and neither do my sisters. I kinda. Fudged the gender on my fake transcripts a little.”

 

A tiny voice in the back of his mind kept telling him that if Pyrrha told anyone about this, he’d have to go back to being Daughter Number Eight. Somehow, in the months at Beacon, he’d not only come to enjoy being known as Jaune Arc instead of what he was called at home, but to fear being known as what he was called at home.

 

“Please don’t tell.”

 

Well, _this_ mirrored the situation with his transcript in a way that was too eerie for him to not notice.

 

“If I tell Ren and Nora, it’s gotta be _me_. I mean. You haven’t told anyone about my transcript so I _know_ you won’t tell about this, but I gotta be sure. I know they’re our teammates, but I had to tell you first and I had to tell you before it was too late not to. I mean. Before I didn’t tell you but my body did. I don’t know. Whatever.”

 

This was a moment that would have lent itself to Pyrrha’s usual straightlaced and composed yet caring demeanor, but in the face of such trust, such absolute honesty, that wasn’t going to happen. Her lower lip was trembling, and rather than letting the already-vulnerable Jaune see the tears that were threatening to jump from her eyes, she elected to pull him in by the hand that she already clutched and wrap her arms tight around his neck.

 

“Jaune. I-- I know… how hard that was for you to say to me. And I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to convey to you how much it means to me…” She had to stop speaking to suppress an unruly sob, but she managed to pull herself together enough to continue. “Sorry. How much it means to me, that you considered me someone worthy of confiding in. I can promise you that your identity in the eyes of the law is safe with me, but just remember...in my eyes, and Nora’s and Ren’s, regardless of your transcripts or passport, you are Jaune Arc, and you are a man, and you are…” Another sob. _Be strong for him, P. He needs you_. “Our leader. And first, and foremost, and always...our friend.”

 

Pressing her face into his firm shoulder one more time to swallow tears, she sighed. “And if it will help, er, level the field a bit, I could share with you something that heretofore nobody else knows...not Nora, not Ren, not Ruby...about me.” Her word choice felt entirely too stuffy still, like a speech she had prepared ahead of time, but better to sound too composed than to fall apart in his arms, right?

 

Pyrrha’s hugs? No problem. Jaune had gotten tons of them. He’d gotten hugs from Nora too. (Not Ren though; Ren wasn’t really a hugger.) Hugs were no big deal. Hugs were small potatoes.

 

But a hug that was as tight as this one and Pyrrha’s voice going thick and tight and too-controlled like Jaune had never heard it before? _What_? Was Pyrrha _crying_? Because he’d come out to her? Jaune could barely school his own trembles, but at the choked noise she interrupted herself with not once but _twice_ , he couldn’t stop them. It was all he could do to keep his teeth from chattering. Man, was his jaw gonna ache later from how tightly he was gritting his teeth together.

 

“P--Pyrrha…” All he could do was drop his forehead to her shoulder, a mirror of what she’d done. He was immediately thankful that they practiced immediately after Oobleck’s class, so he wasn’t putting his face all over her bare shoulder. Grateful that his own tears were going to be soaked into the thick cotton-slash-polyester of the Beacon Uniform Blazer (and her tears too, if she really was crying and not just choking). His arms slid tight around her middle and held on.

 

Wait, wait, was… oh _man_. Was she coming out to him _too_? Jaune hesitated. He didn’t want to force her to tell him anything she didn’t want to just by telling her this one secret of his. She already knew so many sensitive things about him... “Pyrrha you don’t… you don’t have to say anything if you’re not… ready.”

 

Dammit! Ready wasn’t the word he wanted to have gone with, but there it was anyways. It was such a weak word choice.

 

Reflexively, overwhelmed by what she was about to do, Pyrrha squeezed him tighter. “No. No, Jaune, I have to do this. Someone has to know. I’m no Schnee, but my family sort of matters back home, and if any of them knew that I was… well… Sapphic...and not telling anyone, for years and years that I’ve looked at the statues in the town square at home, the statues of beautiful women and never been able to share what I felt… I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore,” she sobbed, trying desperately to conceal the emotion that so rarely washed over her.

 

“Let me try this again,” she said slowly, after half a minute of tears. “I’m gay. I think I managed to get that part of my point across. But even if it were just that, I might be alright. But I’m not the princess of victory that they think I am. I don’t know what I am yet, demigirl, agender, I don’t know, but I know that I’m not the perfect lady they want me to be. And I’ve tried to fix that, but it isn’t in me, Jaune. Just like the woman your family thinks you are isn’t in you. But I don’t have a name yet for what I am, and I hope...I hope you can help me find that one day.”

 

“And I hope,” she continued, managing to even out her unsteady breaths enough to be understood, “I hope that one day, you and I can both show our families who we really are, whatever that ends up meaning.”

 

For the first time since the heavy conversation had begun, she pulled back, to meet her friend’s bloodshot and teary gaze with her own. “Because, even if it goes badly… we’ve got one another. Right?” The desperation in her voice as she brought her sentence to a close was damn near humiliating. _Jaune’s a good man. He will understand._

 

Jaune laughed shakily. “Okay--wait, before you get the wrong idea, Pyrrha, I’m not laughing at you. I promise. I totally, totally understand how you feel.” He paused, looked away, looked back, and then let go of Pyrrha long enough to cup her face in both hands.

 

He squished her cheeks.

 

“You’re great, and I really, really appreciate and actually kinda feel pretty neat about you tellin’ me this,” he said, unable to stop his grin. “It’s kinda relieving, y’know. For the longest time I thought I was just gay. _Just_ gay. But… well I mean I kinda still am, because come _on_ you’ve seen Sun and Neptune, right?” _Oh God Jaune shut up_! “And well Ren’s not bad to look at, but… Nora.”

 

Jaune paused again.

 

“What if… no. I shouldn’t. No. I. I want to but I’ve just told you, and…” Jaune let go of Pyrrha’s face to tap his chin. “What if I told Ren and Nora as soon as we went back to our dorm? I’m feelin’ actually pretty brave enough to tell Ruby too.”

 

Jaune, stop. Back to Pyrrha. She sounded scared. “What I’m trying to say is. Well no I wasn’t trying to say it yet but I was thinking it I _swear_ \--Pyrrha. You’ve got us. If nobody else understands, at least I do, okay?” He took a deep, deep breath. “And if Ren and Nora don’t--and I’m sure they will so don’t quote me on that okay--then who needs them? We’ve got us. And that’s what matters here right now. Jaune and Pyrrha.”

 

Don’t quote him as the best motivational speaker in all of Remnant, but damn it did he try.

 

Pyrrha swallowed hard, and wiped the last remaining tears from her now-blotchy cheeks. “Well, that was the most crying I’ve done in a year, but I think I’ve got it out of my system. And if not now, when, right?” She forced a smile. Her nerves were still eating at her, but she knew that the more open she allowed herself to be, the lighter she would be. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt the wings at her ankles, but she wanted that sensation back, and this was a surefire way to get it.

 

“Let’s go. Let’s do it, now, while we’ve still got our adrenaline up, and if it goes badly, we can always cry ourselves to sleep tonight.” _Way to be optimistic. That is exactly what this moment needs._

“Yeah! Let it out! Let’s--let’s go _tell people_!” No. “Our friends, at least!” Better.

 

Jaune picked up Crocea Mors, collapsed the shield into the sheath and slid the sword home before strapping it all to his belt. He pushed the door to the roof open with his shoulder and dashed through, adrenaline still pumping. That had been worse than fighting Grimm but he’d come out better for it. Hah, come out.

 

Ruby rounded the corner at the same time and the two nearly collided. “Oh--hi, Jaune!” she chirped, jumping back. “Hi, Pyrrha!” she called over his shoulder.

 

Jaune grabbed Ruby’s shoulders. “Ruby, I’m trans,” he said, breathless. Her eyes widened in brief surprise, and then a grin split her face.

 

“Neat!” she squealed, throwing her arms around Jaune’s middle and squeezing the air out of him. “Me too!”

 

That seemed to be her cue. “Ruby. I, um, I’m gay. And I’m also… not a girl, but I don’t know what kind of not-girl I am, so...stay tuned.” _That was pathetic_.

 

Ruby let go of Jaune and immediately launched herself at Pyrrha to do the same. “Also neat! Also, haha, me too! About the gay, I mean! I’m pretty, uh… gay.” She let go of and then grinned up at Pyrrha, rocking back on her heels. “Thank you both for telling me! I’m _honored_.”

 

She attempted a curtsy as Jaune bowed, but she stumbled a bit and ended up leaning against the wall, laughing. “Are you gonna tell anyone else? Or just me? Either way, congrats on coming out! I should bake you a cake!”

 

Jaune stopped dead. “Uh, no, Ruby, a cake isn’t… isn’t necessary.”

 

The last time Ruby tried to make anyone a cake (Blake’s birthday) ended with a cake heavy enough to hurt if it got dropped from high enough. Yang had told him Ruby’d left it too cool in the oven. While the oven was still hot. Not the smartest of moves.

 

Ruby laughed anyways. “Okay, okay, no cake! But still! The sentiment is there!”

 

“And by the way! Pyrrha!” She had started to walk away but darted backwards to face the taller redhead.

 

“Um...yes?”

 

Ruby put both hands squarely on Pyrrha’s shoulders, and she tried not to chuckle at the fact that the tiny, sable-haired girl had to stand on her very tiptoes to do so. “You’re nervous. And I know it’s not as easy as telling you not to be nervous and expecting that to work, but I’m gonna try it anyway, okay? Here goes.” Ruby stopped and cleared her throat into her elbow for dramatic effect. “Ready? You ready?”

 

“Uh, yes?” was Pyrrha’s hesitant reply.

 

“Don’t be nervous!” Ruby exclaimed, shaking her as she spoke. “Nora and Ren literally could not love the two of you more if they tried. I know you’ve got this movie reel in your head of all the things they could say that would hurt you, but that’s not how it’s gonna happen, okay? They love you and they are gonna be nothing but happy for you as you try and find yourself.”

 

Pyrrha swallowed. _Damn it. I thought I wasn’t gonna be crying anymore today…_

 

Ruby sprung up with all the effort she could muster and pressed a kiss onto Pyrrha’s cheek before darting off. “Don’t be nervous!” she called over her shoulder once more as she went on her way-- a little too quickly for the older girl’s liking.

 

“How about don’t run in the hallways?” Pyrrha tried to retort, but Ruby was long gone by the time she decided to reply.

 

“Yeah... she’s not gonna listen, she runs everywhere,” Jaune commented offhandedly. “You should hear Weiss when Ruby runs. Yikes.” He grimaced, and then playfully elbowed Pyrrha. “Anyways, let’s go come out to our teammates.”

 

Ren happened to be making good headway on his homework, even with Nora bouncing around in the peripherals of his vision. He was doing a good job, he was focusing, he was going to get a good g--

 

“Nora, have you done any of your homework at all?” he asked, sitting back in his chair.

 

“Nope!” she replied. “Was gonna ask Pyrrha for help, but she’s not here!”

 

“What do you mean Pyrrha’s not here? She’s literally coming in the door behind me,” Jaune intercepted, pushing the door to their dorm open. Nora scowled.

 

“Pyrrha! Jaune! Where the hell were you guys? It’s long past time for you to be done with your training!” Nora slid across the linoleum floor to her own bed in her socked feet, for no other reason than to prove she could. “I’ve been needing help with this Wilderness Survival homework for half an hour!”

 

“Nora, chill out,” Ren accosted her gently. He looked up at Pyrrha, and she could see the way he was reading her face. He knew instinctively that something was up, but he didn’t seem comfortable asking about it himself, so he turned back to Nora and twitched one eyebrow almost imperceptibly, as if to urge her to speak.

 

She took the cue without so much as a second thought. “Guys...is something up?”

 

“Well, as a matter of fact, yes, the both of us do have something to--”

 

“ _You’re dati_ \--” Nora started to blurt, before Ren swiped his right hand in front of his throat with a threatening expression.

 

“I mean, um, what were you going to say?” she asked more demurely, tucking one leg under her frilled skirt.

 

Pyrrha opened her mouth as if to speak, but found that she still didn’t have quite the bravery needed to start the conversation. She’d rather follow in the footsteps of her team’s leader. “Jaune? Did you...want to go first?”

 

“Well, sure, I guess.” He shrugged, and then stuck his hands in his pockets.

 

Or, well, he tried to. One hand went in one pocket fine, the other was blocked by Crocea Mors. A little flustered by the half miss, he rested his un-pocketed hand on the sword’s hilt instead. “I kinda. Well. I told Pyrrha first of all ‘cuz she’s my teammate and I. Yeah. I’m trans.”

 

Ren blinked once, twice, a third time. He raised an eyebrow--more obviously than what it took for Nora to read his expressions; Jaune wasn’t very good at knowing what expression of Ren’s was what. “Okay,” he said.

 

Not… _really_ what Ren had been expecting out of the blond, but it was less shocking than what his mind had oh-so-helpfully supplied him with.

 

Jaune balked. “That’s--that’s it? Just ‘okay’?” he demanded.

 

“Well, yes.” Ren was annoyed. A little. He wasn’t very emotive and Jaune expected emotion. “Did you want a fanfare? Nora can play a pretty mean kazoo.”

 

“Oh, stop it, you flatterer!” Nora cooed, flapping a hand in Ren’s direction. “I can really get it out if you want me to, though,” she insisted, her tone changing as she shifted her posture towards her bedside drawer.

 

“That really won’t be necessary, Nora. After all, I still haven’t even said my piece.”

 

Nora looked horribly confused for a moment, and sat firmly back down on her bed. “I thought your piece was that Jaune is trans?”

 

“No, my piece is that I’m gay.” Pyrrha hesitated. “And...some form of trans, probably? I’m not entirely girl, but the ratios are still unclear at this point in time, so…” She let out a bitter laugh. “If I ever find out what I am, I’ll keep you posted.”

 

As she finished her sentence, Nora rose. She was a second away from admonishing her not to pull out the damn kazoo when the smaller brunette threw her arms around her with force enough to have knocked her to the floor, had Jaune’s hand not steadied her.

 

“Aww. I love you, you big goof. No matter what you are.” Nora, too, pressed her lips into Pyrrha’s cheek-- what was it with everyone and her face this evening?-- and released her with a laugh. “I mean, what is gender anyway? You don’t need one. I don’t have a gender and I’m still cute as hell-- and kickass on a kazoo, so I’m told.” She winked at Ren, shaking a hip in his direction as she strutted to the window to close it, and he allowed a small smile in return.

 

“Seriously. Did you two think we were going to throw you out for not being bland cookie-cutter straight people?” Ren asked, surprising everyone in the room with the boldness of his language.

 

“At this point it’s more like, who on this team _is_ straight people, amiright?” Jaune joked weakly. “You’re not straight are you Ren?”

 

Ren scrunched his nose up. “No way. Well. Not technically.” He dragged his ponytail over his shoulder and twisted his fingers into the strands as something to do with his hands. “I’m genderfluid, so really, I mean…” Ren turned his focus to his hair.

 

Jaune blinked a few times. Huh. Who knew Ren could get flustered. “REN!” Nora squealed, nearly dropping her kazoo. “You told _someone who isn’t me_! I’m SO PROUD OF YOU!”

 

“I couldn’t even get one of those?” Jaune motioned between Nora and Ren. Nora stuck her tongue out. “You guys are _terrible_. No recognition for your team leader _at all_.” Despite Jaune’s huffy tone, the fondness was still enough to overpower any sting the words might’ve left.

  
“I haven’t known you for _years and years and years_ , Jaune,” Nora explained. “I knew Ren was genderfluid before _Ren_ knew Ren was genderfluid.”

 

“She’s not lying,” Ren added.

 

“So that was… easier than I thought,” Pyrrha admitted with a laugh. “I’m not sure what to suggest we do now, but relaxing and having the rest of the night to ourselves sounds great to me.”

 

“It is Friday,” Nora reminded her. “We can sleep in as long as we want, I say we have a movie night!” She started to reach under the bed to get to her box of DVDs, but, as she had a tendency to do, she stopped mid-thought and changed her mind.

 

“Or, we could do something else. Something that rhymes with movie night… _pillow fight_!” Nora took her pillow in her hands, jumped from her bed to Ren’s (an impressive feat, considering the distance), and began to swing at him. Without much effort, Ren leaned back to avoid contact, grabbed his own pillow, and hit her swiftly across the face.

 

Nora gasped. “Ren! You’re playing along!”

 

Without answering, he picked her up, carried her back to her bed while she kicked and giggled, threw her down, and started hitting her flailing legs with his pillow while holding her down with his other hand.

 

“Are you two going to join in, or let us have all the fun?” he asked, raising his voice slightly so he could be heard over Nora’s laughter.

 

Pyrrha kicked off her shoes quickly, darted to her bed to grab her “weapon,” and positioned herself squarely. “I’d like to see which one of you thinks you can take me.”

 

Jaune, satisfied that neither of the three others were forcing him to pillow fight, elected instead to curl up at the head of his bed and watch what unfolded. No way, nope, no pillow fighting for Jaune.

 

Nora threw off Ren’s grip easily and started to come at her, finally starting to breathe normally after her uncontrollable laughter. Ren met Jaune’s eye and smiled, just enough to get it across. In this moment, Pyrrha finally felt, despite knowing in her mind all along that these teammates loved her, this small nuclear unit was all the family she needed.

  
In this moment, Jaune felt that this was home.


End file.
